This invention relates to shipping and storage pallets and more particularly to plastic pallets embodying a twin sheet construction.
Pallets have traditionally been formed of wood. Wood pallets, however, have many disadvantages. For example, they are subject to breakage and thus are not reusable over an extended period of time. Wood pallets also take up a considerable amount of valuable floor space in the warehouse when they are not in use. In an effort to solve some of the problems associated with wood pallets, plastic pallets have been employed with some degree of success. In one generally successfull form of plastic pallet design, a twin sheet construction has been used in which upper and lower plastic sheets are formed in separate molding operations and the two sheets are then selectively fused or knitted together in a suitable press to form reinforced double wall structure. Even these twin sheet plastic pallets have drawbacks however. Specifically, their under surfaces tend to be irregular so that movement of the pallet over irregular transfer surfaces and over various transfer devices such as conveyors is difficult and sometimes impossible. Further, the prior art twin sheet pallets have tended to creep or sag after a period of time. Further, the prior art twin sheet pallets fail to make provision to preclude tipping of the pallet off of the forks of a forklift truck in the presence of an unbalanced load on the pallet.